A 'greedy and wicked' estate agent, who hoped to pocket a fortune kidnapping and torturing her former boss, was jailed for 10 years today.
Ambreen Gul, 23, was so furious when she was fired that she recruited another sacked colleague and two other thugs to make her ex-boss pay.
Having lured Waqas Malik to her flat, the unsuspecting businessman was kicked, punched and pistol whipped repeatedly.
During seven hours of suffering one of his captors stood on his head, while another warned he had he would never see his family again unless he raised £200,000 ransom.
He was told failure would result in the executions of both himself and his 13-year-old son.
Having made several phone calls to his wife in a desperate bid to raise the cash, he was given a powerful sedative.
But the get-rich-quick plot went wrong when the 48-year-old estate agent fell ill.
London's Southwark Crown Court was told gun-toting Gul immediately 'panicked'.
Desperate to cover up her crimes, she ordered her bound, blindfolded and bleeding victim to be put in an office chair, wheeled from the gang's 'stronghold', bundled into a waiting car and driven 'almost unconscious' to his home.
Once there Gul told his wife he was drunk and had sexually assaulted her and then drove off.
The now 'comatose' businessman was taken to hospital, where doctors found his face and head covered in bruises and cuts, and 'ligature marks' on his wrists from the tape bindings.
In the dock with Gul, of Hare Street, Hackney, east London, were Mukshud Ali, 18, of Wilmington Gardens, Barking, Essex, who was sentenced to seven years nine months in a young offenders' institution; Quasim Ahmed, 21, of Westrow Drive, Barking, who was jailed for eight years, and former West Ham under-17s footballer Shakib Chowdhury, 20, from Surbiton, Surrey, who was sent to a young offenders' institution for serve eight-and-a-half years.
All four were variously convicted or admitted falsely imprisoning the businessman between June 17 and 20 last year, wounding with intent, blackmail, having an imitation firearm with intent, theft and administering a 'poison or noxious substance' with intent.
Passing sentence, Judge Deborah Taylor told them: 'You were involved in this wicked, premeditated and brutal plan to lure Mr Malik to a flat where he was beaten up and tied to a chair with his eyes and mouth bound.'
His seven hours of suffering caused him 'pain, fear and distress' ... and he believed he was going to be shot.
'You showed a reckless disregard to his health and safety.'
He was only released when 'you became scared for yourselves' after he was drugged and became semi-conscious.
The judge continued: 'He not only suffered physical injuries - cuts and bruises to his head and body - for which he had to have treatment in hospital for four days, but suffered psychological injury and the exacerbation of heart and spinal conditions.
'His family also suffered and was now considering leaving the country.
'These are serious and ugly crimes and it is chilling to find those as young as you involved in them,' she added.
Dealing with Gul first, the judge told her that as the 'instigator and one of the ringleaders of the plan, motivated as it was by revenge and greed', she had 'literally added insult to injury' by falsely accusing the businessman of subjecting her to a 'drunken sexual assault'.
'You have shown little remorse and you have consistently shown yourself as dishonest and manipulative, prepared to do and say anything to save yourself, even writing to Mr Malik in attempting to get him to change his mind about pursuing this case.'
The judge said Ali had also been 'driven by greed and revenge', been involved from the outset, and helped beat their victim after he, like Gul, was sacked from the estate agents.
For his part Ahmed had not only been a willing recruit interested in his 'share of the ransom monies' but had shown little remorse, while Chowdhury has also been consumed by greed as he armed himself with a knife and meted out some of the violence.
The court heard Mr Malik's ordeal arose from the double sacking of Gul and Ali from his Ilford estate agents.
'They were motivated... by greed - £200,000, although at one point it seemed it was going to be £500,000 - because they believed he was obviously a rich businessman and could provide the money,' said Matthew Farmer, prosecuting.
'The other motivation was a grudge, because he had sacked them.'
The barrister said once Ahmed and Chowdhury had been recruited as 'muscle' and June 18 selected as kidnap day, Gul enticed her former boss from his office, pretending she was both interested in buying his car and selling her flat to him.
Once they had met, she drove him to her home where the others lay masked and waiting.
'They burst in and began to hit him on the head and face and all over his body. He remembers seeing one carrying a pistol and another a knife,' said counsel.
As he screamed: 'What have I done, what have I done?', one of his attackers ordered him to 'shut up or be shot'.
Mr Farmer said once he had been knocked to the lounge floor, his attackers stood on his wrists and bound hand and foot by tape. He was also blindfolded.
'Chillingly... one of the men also stood on his head. The others laughed as they watched this torture,' said counsel.
After having £1,000 stolen from his wallet, the businessman was tied to a chair, pistol-whipped and forced to make the first of several phone calls to his wife.
With a handgun 'pressed to his temple' and another to the back of his head, he pretended he was in Milton Keynes negotiating a 'good business deal'.
He said she had to do whatever she could to raise £200,000, including going to the pawnbrokers and even 'selling the house'.
She ended up so worried she called police.
Not long afterwards, Mr Malik was again beaten about the head with the gun barrel and warned he would die if he did not down a sedative.
The next thing he remembered was waking up in hospital.
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23rd-June-2008
